Benchmark moments seal bonds that shape our city
JERRY AULDS

Certain days and their events are etched by fire in our minds.

Philadelphia boy Sol Staller recalls with singular clarity a crackling voice on the radio announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"I was a civilian working in Washington and the announcer was telling us to report to our duty stations."

Sol reported to the Quartermaster General's office, where he was told to go home and come back on Monday.

What the American-born son of Polish and Russian immigrant Jews wanted to do was join the Army. Still, he reported the next day and was issued an ID card, while telling everyone who would listen he had to get back to Philadelphia.

While he desired to get into uniform as soon as possible, Sol changed his mind about joining.

"All my aunts still remembered how it was in Poland and Russia where someone family member would be forced into the army, and no one would hear of or see them for 25 years."

Instead, he finally made it to Philly.

"I knew the head of the draft board and I eased by and told him I was ready to go." Soon the expedited draft notice arrived and young Sol donned the uniform he desired while sparing his aunts undue anguish.

Thus began a journey that eventually brought Sol a posting to Camp Hulen in Palacios and a date with a gorgeous El Campo girl, Maureen Bishkin, who would become his wife.

On his way to becoming a Texan, the graduate of Officer's Candidate School landed in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's command on Okinawa and became a witness to history.

"I could have thrown a rock and hit the Missouri, the ship where the Japanese surrendered unconditionally."

Aboard the Missouri was a young sailor from New York. That sailor, Art Keinarth, actually witnessed the signing of the surrender treaty. Keinarth also found his way to Texas and married another gorgeous El Campo girl, Bernice Adamcik. Before his death, Keinarth would raise a family and contribute mightily to the life of El Campo as a teacher, member of the El Campo City Council and as a docent for the El Campo Museum.

Yet another El Campoan, retired ag teacher D.D. Hill, carries vivid recollections of Dec. 7, 1941. A few months shy of his 17th birthday and looking to escape out of the Valley of Texas and the family dairy business, Hill joined the Navy by fibbing about his age and his name.

"D.D. was actually my brother's name."

Hill turned 18 in Hawaii and was aboard ship when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor.

"I woke up at 6:30 that morning and had breakfast, and then when the planes attacked at 7:30, I really woke up," Hill told the El Campo Rotary Club on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007.

The intersection of Dec. 7, 1941 in the lives of Staller, Keinarth and Hill eventually enlivened, invigorated and enriched our community.

Another date - Sept. 11, 2001 - intersects and reverberates in our lives and perhaps may foster the next "Greatest Generation."

My sister, Dr. Cheyenne Martin, is a professor at The University of Texas School of Nursing in Galveston. Two years ago, a former student of my sister invited Cheyenne to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany to speak about her research on the Holocaust and resistance movements during World War II.

Ramstein is where the wounded from Iraq are flown to be transferred first to the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, then to the states, including Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

At Ramstein, Dr. Martin went out to the line and met the huge planes bearing their precious cargo of wounded warriors. She was struck by the care the wounded received and the love each of the soldiers bore for each other.

"Their first words were often, 'Did my buddies make it? How are they?'"

On Dec. 20, the Hunts for Heroes organization, founded by El Campo's Billy Hodges, will be bringing three wounded soldiers and their families to Ed and Steven Weinheimer's Wild Things Hunting Club.

Hunts for Heroes is looking for some carolers to welcome and entertain the warriors and their families.

Sounds like we've got an El Campo kind of date.